MARTINEZ — A Richmond woman has been charged in the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian, an incident police say was caused by distracted driving.

Ana Hernandez, 59, was ordered last month to stand trial on charges of vehicular manslaughter, hit-and-run resulting in death, and falsifying a police report.

After allegedly running over a 60-year-old pedestrian while she was using her cell phone, Hernandez drove to Richmond, stashed her car and “placed a false 911 call about being carjacked by a black man,” prosecutor Adam McConney said, according to a court transcript.

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The incident happened on Nov. 9, and Hernandez reportedly confessed to police days later, though her attorney claims the confession was improperly obtained.

The victim, San Pablo resident Margaret Therese Cooney, died from her injuries about two weeks later.

According to police testimony, investigators interviewed Hernandez and members of her family and learned that at the time of the hit-and-run, she was on a mission spurred by her belief that her husband was having an affair with the wife of an auto mechanic.

Feigning car troubles, Hernandez had made an appointment with the mechanic. She was using a GPS application on her phone to try to find the auto shop when she crashed into Cooney, San Pablo Det. Robert Richer testified.

Witnesses to the collision saw the car that struck Cooney screech to a halt and then speed away.

Hernandez called police a little while later, alleging she had pulled over to use a GPS application when a man opened her door, ordered her out and took her car, according to police.

A couple of days later, she called police and reported that she had found her car in Richmond.

Investigators took fragments of headlights found at the scene of the hit-and-run, and fitted them into a broken headlight on the car. They fit together like pieces of a puzzle, according to Richer’s testimony.

Police then conducted two interviews with Hernandez within a few hours, the first one between 3 and 5 a.m.

Hernandez’s attorney, Diego Ortiz, argued that officers had failed to read his client her Miranda rights and that they told her that the interview would be about the alleged carjacking. Prosecutors said that because Hernandez was free to leave, officers didn’t have to read her rights, though they later ended up doing so when the conversation turned to the crash. A judge sided with the prosecution and allowed Richer’s testimony to proceed.

During the interview, Hernandez eventually admitted to being the driver, and when she was left alone in the room, a surveillance camera reportedly caught her calling someone and saying, “Because I was chasing you I ran over a woman,” Richer testified.

Police tracked down the mechanic, who told them he and his wife met with Hernandez weeks after the incident, and they all determined that the affair allegations weren’t true.

Hernandez is out of custody, having posted $51,000 bail, records show.

Nate Gartrell covers crime, politics, and corruption in Contra Costa County. He joined the Bay Area News Group in 2014. Outside of journalism, he doesn't do much. He aspires to visit all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums. Reach him at 925-779-7174.

“I always thought he was a good man,” Jannatul Ferdous, the suspect’s wife, said Wednesday, speaking through the crack of the front door of her home in Dhaka, “and I still consider him a good man. I never thought he could be involved in an incident like this.”